Christmas - At Last

Some of you may recall that Mr. Happy and I weren't able to get home to New Brunswick for the holidays as a storm prevented us from travelling on Boxing Day. Since then, work schedules and other commitments have kept us here. (Blah.)

On Friday night, my dad and SM, Ivy, arrived with Christmas in their trunk. I'm sure the neighbours thought they had robbed Santa's workshop. We opened our presents and then enjoyed a delicious supper made by Mr. Happy. After we hosed down the kitchen washed the dishes, we all sat around talking, eating chocolates and cookies. It was really nice to have a visit.

Dad and Ivy were very good to both of us. Ever since we opened our gifts, I have been carrying this stack of books up and down the stairs - I look at them before I go to bed and then I bring them downstairs when I get home from work where I thumb through them in the evening. I think Mrs. Claus did all the reconnaissance work for this list of books, so she deserves the applause:

Sitting on top of the books is a woven scarf. Pat, who I referred to as Mommy P growing up, gave this to me. Isn't it pretty? It was made by the mother of one of my oldest friends from home.

You'll notice that there is one book in stack that is not knitting related. It's the one on top of Scarf Style, entitled: Ganong. My SS - Kerry, and her hubby gave this to Mr. Happy and I.

Ganong (formerly Ganong Brothers) is a chocolate factory located in St. Stephen, NB, about a 30 minute drive from my home town. Sometimes I think I was weaned from the bottle onto Ganong's chocolates. Pal-o-Mine Bars were one of my favourites when I was a kid. They're so rich and sweet. Ganong used to sell double-dipped chocolates in bulk to local businesses. I assume that these were chocolates meant for the Delecto boxes which were damaged, so they dipped them again.

When I was a kid Betty, who worked for my Dad, would set up the scale in my mom's office where she would proceed to weigh out scoops of chocolate. Mom's office was probably the only location where she could do this without being accosted by everyone on staff. But I was there, drooling, just waiting for her to say, "Stephanie, would you like one?" I could spot a double-dipped cherry at 50 paces! I can't wait to sit down and read this book.

On Saturday, dad and Ivy went to visit Ivy's sister and I went to Tangled Skeins for a bit. I ended up with this:

Next year's presents already???

Now that Dad and Ivy have their presents, I can show you the knitting I did for Christmas!

For my Dad and my brother:

Pattern: Fulled Gauntlets from Catherine Vardy
Yarn: Brown Sheep Lamb's Pride Bulky
Sizes: Adult Small and Medium
Notes: Love these mitts - I plan to do more for next Christmas. I thought they would be good for wearing while using the snow-blower.

For my littlest niece:

Pattern: Fulled Mitts from Catherine Vardy
Yarn: Patons SWS (about 2/3 of ball)
Size: Children's Medium
Notes: Patons SWS felts VERY QUICKLY. I did these by hand as well as a second pair, in blue for her older sister.

For Ivy:

Pattern: Garter stitch - CO 130-ish stitches, 10mm needle
Yarn: Noro Silk Mountain - 3 skeins less 1 foot!
Notes: I LOVE THIS SCARF. I had a hard time letting it go. I had originally thought about making a spiral scarf with this yarn, but decided the yarn had enough going for it that something simple was better. I love the subtle vertical stripes.

And finally, something I finished for Mr. Happy on Sunday night:

Pattern: Steph's standard toe-up sock (provisional cast on, short row toe and heel) 60 stitches on 3mm needles.
Yarn: Opal 6-ply. I had originally bought this yarn to finish up another pair of socks, so these are 100 gram socks. (Opal 6-ply comes in 150 gram balls.)
Notes: Mr Happy has large feet. From here on in, all of his Steph-knit socks will be made with be 6-ply yarn.

That's all for now. Phew.

(Please excuse the lighting in these photos. We're finally getting some winter weather here. The darker pictures were taken in the last few days. The lighter photos were taken earlier this month, when the natural light was that weird blue-gray.)